Glass, Carter (1858–1946)

US politician and newspaper publisher. An active Democrat, he served in the Virginia senate and then in the US House of Representatives (1902–18); there he sponsored the act that established the Federal Reserve System (1913). He served as secretary of the treasury (1918–20), leaving to fill a vacancy in the US Senate, where he served until his death (1920–46). A fiscal conservative and a defender of states' rights, he often opposed New Deal legislation, but he supported the League of Nations and the US role in World War II. Glass was born in Lynchburg, Virginia. Starting at age 14 as a printer's assistant on his father's newspaper, he became an editor and by 1895 owned three newspapers.